Someone asked me about designing something to read two potentiometers to provide input to his custom program running on a Windows machine. But why re-invent the wheel?
What is the state-of-the-art now for computer games and other things like flight simulators reading pots? Used to be you just insured that the user had a game port board installed?
Has this changed to USB interfaced devices now? If so, can you point me to something cheap to tell him to buy?
Two rotational controllers, connects to a computer ... it's called a "mouse" ;)
Well, almost. The quadrature sensors used in mice only report relative movement; there's no defined "zero". But they cost almost nothing, will connect to just about any PC, and don't require additional drivers.
Or you could use each pot to set the frequency of an oscillator and connect to the audio input. For two pots, use stereo.
If you want the "state of the art", it's likely to be USB and a DirectInput/Xinput driver.
[Console controllers are much worse; they often encrypt the communication as an anti-competition measure. If that doesn't help, they'll find some way to integrate the controllers into the copy-prevention mechanism, so that cloning will constitute "circumvention" under the DMCA.]
BlueTooth.
Oh, you want cheap? USB is probably better.
-- Paul Hovnanian mailto:Paul@Hovnanian.com ------------------------------------------------------------------ If Bill gates had a dime for every windows machine that crashed... Wait a minute, he does!
No. It's called a JOYSTICK. Or even a GAMEPAD.
'something to read two pots' is NOT the interface with which it is connected.
google AVRUSB or Objective Development AVR
Its not what I use for my devices, which need a blazing update rate, but it works well.
microchip is now making a pic with usb and analog inputs , but I haven't used it yet
you want to access HID , ie Human Interface Device, in windows.
IE you plug in a usb joystick or other game controller, you get a HID, it "mounts" itself into windows, sends windows a text file telling windows what its controls are, your software associates itself with those controls, and off you go. It will show up as a hardware device in the device manager menu in windows as a " Sound, Video, and Game Controller" and there is sample code on the net on how to read them.
If you only need 8 bits of analog, these are hackable and average 22 dollars or so.
"Logitech Dual Action Gamepad"
The traces on the PCB are printed polymer conductive ink, but the actual switch contacts and potentiometer pads are solderable, as are the vias on the board. You can get on the pads with #22 stranded wire if your looking for a quick hack, and its fairly immune to 60 hz noise pickup when hacked, many of its competitors are not.
It comes with excellent software that makes hacking its connections with a ohm meter and a jumper wire a breeze.
Hope that gets you started.
Steve Roberts
I see that while Microsoft has tried to abandon game ports in Vista, many sound cards still include them and drivers are being written, though some not written well.
Yet another reason to avoid Vista.
maybe something of interest:
It does, thank you.
Google 'usb "game port" adaptor' plenty of choice and you'd be back to wiring 2 pots to a D connector.
-- Ian Malcolm. London, ENGLAND. (NEWSGROUP REPLY PREFERRED) ianm[at]the[dash]malcolms[dot]freeserve[dot]co[dot]uk [at]=@, [dash]=- & [dot]=. *Warning* HTML & >32K emails --> NUL:
well, where did you think they were going to get that extra resource from for that eye candy on the screen?
Another good idea. I keep forgetting- They have a USB adapter for damn near everything.
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